Tuesday, March 30, 2021
Herdsmen invaded Ebonyi state
There are conflicting figures on the casualties in the killings, as of the time of filing this report. While a resident of the community, who did not want his name in print, said about 18 persons were killed by the herdsmen, another resident said 10 persons were killed.
The resident said,“We are mourning, we are in serious mourning since late Monday. Herdsmen invaded our communities and our people. As we speak, 18 persons were slaughtered like animals. They matcheted many of our people, burnt vehicles, motorcycles and looted our properties.”
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Monday, March 15, 2021
BIAFRA WAR
In 1960, href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0645ad; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Nigeria">Nigeria became independent of the United Kingdom. As with many other new African states, the borders of the country did not reflect earlier ethnic, cultural, religious, or political boundaries. Thus, the northern region of the country has a Muslim majority, being primarily made up of territory of the indigenous Sokoto Caliphate. The southern population is predominantly Christian, being primarily made up of territory of the indigenous sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Yoruba people">Yoruba and Biafra kingdoms in the West and East respectively. Following independence, Nigeria was demarcated primarily along ethnic lines: Hausa and Fulani majority in the north, Yoruba majority in the West, and Igbo majority in the East.[17]
Ethnic tension had simmered in Nigeria during discussions of independence, but in the mid-twentieth century, ethnic and religious riots began to occur. In 1945 an ethnic riot[18] flared up in Jos in which Hausa-Fulani people targeted Igbo people and left many dead and wounded. Police and Army units from Kaduna had to be brought in to restore order. A newspaper article describes the event:
Three hundred Igbo people died in the Jos riot.[10] In 1953 a similar riot occurred in Kano later. A decade later in 1964 and during the Western political crisis[19] divided the Western Region as Ladoke Akintola clashed with Obafemi Awolowo. Widespread reports of fraud tarnished the election's legitimacy. Westerners especially resented the political domination of the Northern People's Congress, many of whose candidates ran unopposed in the election. Violence spread throughout the country and some began to flee the North and West, some to Dahomey. The apparent domination of the political system by the North, and the chaos breaking out across the country, motivated elements within the military to consider decisive action. The federal government, dominated by Northern Nigeria, allowed the crisis to unfold with the intention of declaring a state of emergency and placing the Western Region under martial law. This administration of the Nigerian federal government was widely perceived to be corrupt.[20] In January 1966, the situation reached a breaking point. A military coup occurred during which a mixed but predominantly Igbo group of army officers assassinated 30 political leaders, including Nigeria's Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, and the Northern premier, Sir Ahmadu Bello. The four most senior officers of Northern origin were also killed. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the President, of Igbo extraction, and the favored Western Region politician Obafemi Awolowo were not killed. The commander of the army, General Aguiyi Ironsi seized power to maintain order.[21][22][23]
In July 1966, northern officers and army units staged a counter-coup. Muslim officers named a General from a small ethnic group (the Angas) in central Nigeria, General Yakubu "Jack" Gowon, as the head of the Federal Military Government (FMG). The two coups deepened Nigeria's ethnic tensions. In September 1966, approximately 30,000 Igbo were killed in the north, and some Northerners were killed in backlashes in eastern cities.[24]
In January 1967, the military leaders Gowon, Chukwuemeka Ojukwu and senior police officials of each region met in Aburi, Ghana and agreed on a less centralized union of regions. The Northerners were at odds with this agreement that was known as the Aburi Accords; Obafemi Awolowo, the leader of the Western Region warned that if the Eastern Region seceded, the Western Region would also, which persuaded the northerners.[24]
BIAFRA HISTORY
Biafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was a secessionist state in href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Africa" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0645ad; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none;" title="West Africa">West Africa that existed from May 1967 to January 1970 during the Nigerian Civil War.[2] Its territory consisted of the Eastern Region of href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0645ad; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Nigeria">Nigeria. After Biafra's declaration of independence, Nigeria declared war on the nascent state, defeating them in the Nigerian Civil War and reuniting the two states.
Biafra was formally recognized by Gabon, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Tanzania, and Zambia. Other nations, which did not give official recognition but provided support and assistance to Biafra, included France, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Rhodesia, South Africa, and Vatican City.[a] Biafra received aid from non-state actors, including Joint Church Aid, Holy Ghost Fathers of Ireland,[3] and under their direction Caritas International,[4] and U.S. Catholic Relief Services.[5] href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9decins_Sans_Fronti%C3%A8res" style="background: none; color: #0645ad; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Médecins Sans Frontières">Médecins Sans Frontières also originated in response to the suffering.
Its inhabitants were Igbo, who led the independence movement due to economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions among the various peoples of Nigeria. After two-and-a-half years of war, during which almost two million Biafran civilians (3⁄4 of them small children) died from starvation caused by the total blockade of the region by the Nigerian government,[6] Biafran forces under Nigeria's motto of "No-victor, No-vanquished" surrendered to the href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_military_juntas_of_1966%E2%80%931979_and_1983%E2%80%931998" style="background: none; color: #0645ad; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Nigerian military juntas of 1966–1979 and 1983–1998">Nigerian Federal Military Government (FMG). The surrender was facilitated by the Biafran Vice President and Chief of General Staff, Major General Philip Effiong, who assumed leadership of the Republic of Biafra after the original President, Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, fled to Ivory Coast.[7] After the surrender of Biafra, some Igbos who had fled the conflict returned to their properties but were unable to claim them back from new occupants. This became law in the Abandoned Properties Act (28 September 1979).[8] It was purported that at the start of the civil war, Igbos withdrew their funds from Nigerian banks and converted it to the Biafran currency. After the war, bank accounts owned by Biafrans were seized and a Nigerian panel resolved to give every Igbo person with an account only 20 pounds.[9] Federal projects in Biafra were also greatly reduced compared to other parts of Nigeria.[10] In an Intersociety study it was found that Nigerian security forces also extorted approximately $100 million per year from illegal roadblocks and other methods from Igboland - a cultural sub-region of Biafra in what is now southern Nigeria, causing greater mistrust of the Igbo citizenry towards the Nigerian security forces.[11]
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